I jolt awake from my most recent nightmare. I look around the room and find that everything on the prydwen is still very quiet. I turn in the bed and sit sideways with my feet hanging off the side. The most recent nightmare is the same as always, Nate hating me for killing our son.
I rise from the bed and head to the showers. I strip down and turn on the hot water and let it fall in blissful beads across my body. When I close my eyes, I see his face. That stupid smirk that was painted across it every morning when I woke up with him, then it changes into pure hatred and fear. I open my eyes and shake my head, desperate to shake the image from my head.
I tell myself and others that i've moved on, and that what I did was completely justified, but I don't believe it. I want to. I want to be able to look myself in a mirror and say that they have forgiven me for the things that i've done, but I just can't. It is impossible.
Once I am clean, I turn the shower off and dry myself off and get dressed before heading back to the room. Once i'm inside, I see that Maccready is awake and has placed two plates with food on them at the table in front of him. He looks at me with a smile and gestures for me to sit down across from him.
"C'mon, you should eat somethin' before we head off." He says.
I nod and sit down in front of him and begin to eat. A few minutes of silence passes before Maccready finally says something.
"How'd you sleep?" He asks.
"Same as always, like shit." I say only looking at my food.
He doesn't say anything which makes me look up at him. I'm met with a look of both confusion and hurt.
"No offense, but it's been a while since I've had someone to sleep beside. I'm used to being on my own." I say.
He nods, "I know how you feel. I was on my own for a long time after I left the capital wasteland. When we got together, it took a while for me to adjust to being next to you. But having you close to me makes me happier than I've ever been before." He says with a smile.
I smile back, "you're such a sap." I say.
"I try." He says shrugging his shoulders and I just chuckle and shake my head.
We continue to eat and finish out breakfast and clean up before going down to the command deck for a briefing before we head out. When we arrive, I see that my squad has already assembled and has been waiting on us.
"Well surprise surprise, the sentinel and mr. depressed boy have finally decided to show up." Paladin Shire says.
"Shire!" Maxson booms, "your outburst is noted and unless you want to be brought up on charges, you will show respect to your fellow squad mates. Am I understood?!" He says in a commanding voice.
You can see shire visibly show defeat and regain his composure, "yes sir. Understood." He says.
"Good, now onto your assignment. Today, you will be making history. You will be shipped out west in the pursuit of the Enclave and you will be expected to take them down. However, before you set your sights on taking the fight straight to them, you're going to have to help the california chapter of the brotherhood before hand. They are small and weak. They need to be built up and trained again in order to take out our target." He says, "your objecive as a squad is to brief them of the situation at hand and to take the correct measures to ensure our victory. Am I understood?" He asks.
"Yes sir!" We all call in unison.
"Good. And before you are dismissed, I want you all to understand that we all know of the great sacrifice you all are making, and that we all salute and respect you for putting yourselves in danger. My only off record request is that you be safe. I want to see each and every one of your faces at your homecoming party." He says with a smile.
"I'll ensure their safety Elder," I say, "you have my word."
He nods, "good. Now, go get ready, and good luck. Ad Victoriam!" He says saluting.
"Ad Victoriam!" We all say saluting back.
We all walk away and to our respective rooms to go pack. Maccready follows me to my room and closes the door.
"Man, it almost seems like he actually cares about us." He says.
"He does." I say seriously.
"Pfff, yeah right. He's the type to only care about the mission." Maccready says.
"No, he isn't. I've spent many of nights sharing a drink with him, and he's human, just like us. The night I returned from Danses execution, he invited me to his room for a drink, and as soon as he closed the door, he was immediately overcome with guilt. He talked about how he didn't want it to resort to that, but he had to put the safety of the entire ship first. For all we knew, the institute could have been getting all kinds of info from him. But he truly does care about us. I've been helping him ever since then with his leadership and guiding him on how things should be handled, minus my disappearance of course, and I can tell that he's listened." I tell him as I pack my bag.
A few moments of silence follow.
"So.." he says after a moment, "all you two did was drink huh?" He asks.
I chuckle, "are you serious? I go through all that sappy shit and that's what you get from it?" I ask.
"It's a fair question." He says putting his hands up in mock defense.
I shake my head, "fine. No, there was nothing other than drinking. I love you too much to do something horrible like kiss another man." I say turning completely to him.
He slowly makes his way over to me with a smirk firmly planted on his face as he places his hands on my waist.
"Well I was going something more along the lines of something more than kissing but hey, I'll take your innocent little mind over my gutter head any day." He says.
I wrap my arms around him and kiss him gently, "knucklehead." I call him.
We share another soft and long kiss. His lips are soft and his touch is electric. It causes goosebumps to show and a shiver to travel down my spine. My heart rate increases and my breathing more shallow as things get more heated, but I stop us before things go too far.
"We need to get ready." I say out of breath.
He nods with his eyes still closed and a smile on his face, "okay."
We part and I turn to finish packing. Maccready leaves to go pack his bags as well.
In my bag are the essentials. Clothes, hygiene accessories, etc. But I also pack some things that are near and dear to my heart. I pack a picture of me, Nate, and Shaun that we took after he was born. It reminds me of what i'm fighting for, family. I also pack the wooden toy soldier that Maccready gave me what seems like ages ago. I remember when he gave it to me. He had opened up to me about his life and everything that has happened to him. It broke my heart to hear that he wanted to die along with his wife. I could never imagine a life without this man.
Once I finish packing everything into a bag, I press some buttons on my pip-boy that allows it to be virtually condensed in bulk and it dissappears before my eyes. I grab a modded laser rifle and sling it across my back for easy access and head down to the Virtibird that's on standby.
I sit here and wait for a few minutes for my team and once they all arrive and are ready, we wave goodbye to the ones who've shown up to send us off, including Maxson, and board the virtibird. Before I board however, I run over to Maxson and hand him a paper with a list of names.
"Can you get in contact with the people on this list and let them know where I am?" I ask loudly over the virtibirds roaring engines.
"Of course!" He yells back.
"And one more thing, the dog on the list needs to be put in the care of someone on this list until I return." I say.
"We'll see that it's done! Now, be safe sentinel! I want to see you and your squad again in the future." He yells.
"Of course! Ad Victoriam Arthur!" I yell.
"Ad Victoriam Ellie." He answers and I nod and board the virtibird.
Once we take off, Maccready grabs my hand and intertwines his fingers with mine. I look at him and smile and he reflects it back to me. I look over to Cade and she has a smile across her face as well as she watches us.
She clears her throat and her face turns serious again, "so sentinel, we never got the story on you. What made you get into this?" She asks, "the brotherhood I mean."
"Well ever since I was young, I've always wanted to enlist in the army. My parents wouldn't let me of course, they always told me that they couldn't bare the thought of loosing their little girl. But I always hated them for it. They let my two brothers enlist and not me, and that's what really got me." I say shaking my head, "anyways, I figured as a fallback, I could be a police officer. And in the days and age that I lived in, having a college education was everything. So, I went to college down in virginia, near Norfolk where I got a degree in law, specifically law enforcement. From that day foreword, I swore to protect the citizens of the united states no matter what. So, that's what I'm doing. It may not be called the united states anymore but you're all still born on American soil, therefore you are all red blooded Americans. So I will protect anyone who threatens to do harm to anyone, such as the Enclave." I finally finish.
They all nod except Shire, who looks out at the landscape below.
"Well then we'll follow you, to the grave if we have to." Cade says.
"I mean, I would prefer we not, but you know it's whatever." Masters says.
We all chuckle and await the our arrival and the start of our new assignment.
VVVVVVVVVVVV
Hey, it's The Sentinel here, I hope you like the direction I'm taking this story and these characters. I've been thinking long and hard on how I want this story to go and so far, I think I'm doing fairly okay. And as always, feel free to leave a comment on your thoughts or suggestions and even message me if you'd prefer, I'll try to respond as soon as possible. And thank you so much for checking out my story, it means a lot.
Thanks again!
-The Sentinel